1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a granulocyte-separating material for collecting very simply granulocytes with a high purity in high yields from blood cell suspensions, such as blood and other body fluids. The present invention also relates to a granulocyte collector comprising this granulocyte-separating material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, not only whole blood transfusion, but also component transfusion has been performed in which a component, for example, an erythrocyte, leukocyte, platelet or plasma component, is transfused. Especially, transfusion of granulocytes has been applied widely to remedy infectious diseases in patients who suffer from a granulocytopenia, leukemia or aplastic anemia or for recovery of a reduction in the number of granulocytes due to the administration of carcinostatic agents or radiation. Since the life of granulocytes is short, granulocytes to be used for transfusion should be collected promptly from healthy doners by an ectosomatic circulation method.
Methods for collection of granulocytes are roughly divided into two types, that is, the continuous centrifugal separation method and the adsorption-desorption method using fibers.
The continuous centrifugal separation method is advantageous in that damage of hemocytes can be reduced. However, this method is defective in that the apparatus used is complicated and expensive, large quantities of lymphocytes are included in a collected granulocyte suspension and the yield of granulocytes is low.
The adsorption-desorption method using fibers is advantageous in that the intended collection can be attained by the use of a cheap apparatus having a simple structure and incorporation of lymphocytes in the collected product can be reduced to a low level. However, when fibers are used in this adsorption-desorption method, as in current cases, the operation of tapping a vessel packed with fibers while passing a recovery liquid therethrough is indispensable for recovery of granulocytes adhering to the fibers and, in consequence, the recovered granulocytes become poor in such functions as the bactericidal activity and chemotactic activity and morphological changes, such as formation of voids, are caused. Furthermore, this method is disadvantageous in that a medical operator is compelled to perform the tapping operation for about 10 minutes.